


A Chat Over Coffee

by ReferenceZero



Series: Auld Lang Syne [3]
Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Auld Lang Syne, Gen, Relationship Advice, Romance, Slice of Life, relationship drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:27:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23350939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReferenceZero/pseuds/ReferenceZero
Summary: Janna and Star finally get a chance to sit down and discuss what Marco's reappearance in their lives means for them.
Relationships: Star Butterfly & Janna Ordonia, Star Butterfly & Marco Diaz
Series: Auld Lang Syne [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616296
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	A Chat Over Coffee

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for everyone who's read, kudo'd, or commented on my work! It has been so amazing to get the feedback and support I have, and I hope you enjoy this next chapter! Stay safe from COVID-19 everyone!

“Hey Janna!” Star cheerfully said with a wave, walking into the coffee shop and making her way towards Janna. Janna, wearing a thin black winter jacket with a dark grey beret, looked quite cozy at the table by the fireplace as she held a tea-glass in her hands. She couldn’t help but smirk slightly as Star practically skipped over to her table, and was completely unsuccessful in trying to push away Star from giving her a behind-the-chair hug.

“Ugh, Star! Geez, cut it out!” Janna groaned trying in vain to push Star out of her embrace. “It’s good to see you too but jeezus c’mon you know how I feel about PDAs.”

“I know, I know! Sorry, can’t help myself!” Star shrugged with a chuckle as she unwrapped her blue scarf from around her neck and placed it on the back of her chair. “Thanks for making time out of your busy schedule to grab coffee and catch up—it’s been a while since we last had a chance to just talk!” She cheerfully said as she unzipped her red fuzzy winter jacket and took her seat across from Janna, Star’s hair tumbling over the back of the chair.

“Star we literally saw each other like 36 hours ago.”

“I know, right?! But that doesn’t really count because it was a work-party and I barely got any time to talk to you. Besides, it’s been a while since we’ve just met up as ladies to have a good drink, what with the holidays and such.”

“I guess that’s true, it has been a hot minute since we’ve just hung out. Here—” Janna said handing over a large lidded coffee cup to Star, “got you your favorite while I was waiting.”

“Double Frappuccino Latte with double pumps of chocolate and caramel?”

“Yeah, with whipped cream and sprinkles too.” Janna stated as Star’s eyes lit up. “Like I said, your favorite—” Janna chuckled as Star greedily took it from her hands and took a long sip. “You always ask as if I haven’t been getting you this for years.”

“I’m just double checking that’s all. Nothing worse than getting your hopes up for something and then finding out that it’s not what you were expecting.” Star smirked as she licked her lips. “So Janna-banana, what’s up? Where’s Aide?”

“Aide’s over in the corner,” Janna motioned with her head towards the corner of the coffee shop, Star peaking over her shoulder to see Aide sitting in a booth with multiple binders sprawled on the table and was apparently talking up a storm on her Bluetooth headset. “She has some work to do and I wanted to meet up and chat with you for a bit.”

“Oh no” Star sighed as she shook her head, placing a hand to her forehead. “If Aide’s not here, don’t tell me this is gonna be one of these serious personal talks again.”

“What? Can’t two friends just catch up without having a work assistant always present?” Janna retorted with a raised eyebrow.

“That would be great, but you never send her away from you unless you’re doing something super personal or mean.” Star grumbled, massaging her temples with her hand.

“Well… that’s fair.” Janna chuckled with a shrug. “I prefer to try and keep my professional and personal life as separate as possible, though that’s almost impossible nowadays.”

Star sighed. “Alright then, Janna. If we’re not here to catch up and relax, what did you want to talk about then?”

“Why don’t you guess, Star?” Janna smirked, taking a small sip from her teacup.

“Janna, I really don’t wanna guess—”

“I’ll give you a hint. It’s on the same theme as that red jacket you’re wearing.”

“What? I—look, I really don’t know, and I don’t want to play this game.” Star sighed exasperatedly.

“It’s also something that’s happened within the last couple of days too.”

“Janna, I’m already regretting showing up here if this is how the whole conversation is going to go.” Star pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Fine. Guess we’ll just cut out all the beating around the bush and the bullcrap then. Works for me.” Janna sternly said as she placed the teacup somewhat forcefully back onto the saucer. She looked at Star, her eyes steeled, voice firm, and laced fingers resting on the table. “We need to talk about you and Marco.”

Star did a double take as her eyes grew wide, her mouth opening slightly. “Wait, what?!?”

“You and Marco. We need to discuss it.” Janna seriously said, her eyes not moving from Star’s for even an instant.

“But, wha—why? What’s there to discuss?” Star incredulously asked.

“Apparently quite a lot from the looks of it.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“I’m deadly serious. This is a very serious situation Star.”

“You’re joking—there’s nothing serious going on at all with me and Marco!”

“The sick joke here is that you don’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation you’re in.” came the icy reply.

“Ja-Ja-Janna, look,” Star flustered stuttered, rubbing a hand across her forehead. “Marco is an old-friend who—"

“A _FRIEND_???” Janna nearly shouted, banging a fist on the table hard enough to nearly knock over her glass, happy to have found the opening she was waiting for. “A _friend_ doesn’t do what he did! A _friend_ doesn’t ghost his girlfriend and everyone else he knows for _ten-frickin’-years_ like an asshole. A _friend_ isn’t a six-foot-tall pile of hot stinkin’ shit!” She seethed, her face reddening, her eyes and eyebrows sharp.

“JANNA! Lower your voice!” Star hissed as her eyes darted around the room, watching the other patrons quickly avert their eyes and go back to chattering, trying to refill the shocked silence that had entered the café when Janna had practically yelled. “You can’t be making a scene here! You’re the friggin Mayor!”

“Yeah, well, I can make a scene if I want to because right now, I’m sitting here as your friend, and I don’t give two flying craps about what anyone else is thinking right now.” Janna tensely replied. “This is serious Star—you’re being a frickin idiot right now having that man have anything to do with your life.”

“And I’m serious Janna—I have no idea what you’re talking about or why you’re making a big deal out of nothing!” Star exasperatedly replied.

“And boom! There you have it folks! Living proof why Star is being the biggest frickin moron on the planet right now!” Janna gestured sharply with both hands.

“Alright Janna, if all you’re going to do is insult me then I’m just gonna leave.” Star briskly said, pushing her chair back and starting to stand up. “You can have Aide call me when you’re ready to talk like friends instead of being a lil bitch.”

“Star, wait—” Janna hurriedly said, reaching out and grabbing Star’s jacket by the arm. Star stopped and looked at Janna, whose face had quickly shifted from rage to almost a panic. Janna almost never looked scared, and that face alone was filling Star with more dread than anything else. “I’m sorry, just, please…” she almost whispered as she glanced between Star and the empty chair.

Star silently nodded and slowly sat back down as Janna grabbed her teacup with both hands and looked down, desperately trying to minimize the slight shake in her hands. Both of them sat down in silence for a moment, each staring at their drinks while the coffee shop slowly became dinful once more. A worker quietly placed a teapot on the table with a soft awkward smile and left.

Janna sighed. “Listen Star, I’m… I’m sorry about freaking out like that.”

“Yeah, you almost never get that angry.” Star gently replied. “You really must think this is a big deal or something, huh?” she said, taking a small sip from her large glass.

“Like I said before, this _is_ a big deal Star.” She said pouring more hot tea into her cup. “I’m worried and scared for you.”

_Ho—ly—Shit…_ Star thought, eyes widening slightly. _Janna never says this clearly how she’s feeling, let alone that she’s scared_… _Corn Almighty this must be more serious than I thought_.

“Janna…” Star slowly began. “I don’t understand why you’re worried. There’s nothing to be worried or scared about! All I did was run into Marco randomly, we caught up, and I invited him over to a house party to catch up with old friends. What’s wrong with that?”

“Everything Star!” Janna exclaimed before settling her voice down again. “Everything is wrong with that…”

“Well then please explain it to me because I have no clue why you’re making this such a big deal” Star sighed as she took a long sip from her drink.

Janna sighed and took a long sip as well. “Alright, well first off—the fact that you even talked to him again is the first real problem.”

“What’s wrong with talking with Marco?” Star’s face puzzled.

“The fact that he is your most significant ex-boyfriend or partner or whatever you guys called it is the first reason why this is such a bad idea. Do you know how often people fall back in with their exes because of stuff like this?”

“You make it sound like I randomly drunk-called Marco one night!” Star retorted. “I haven’t even talked to him in like, ten years or something! He just randomly showed up at the grocery store when I was there.”

“And that’s another problem Star—he hasn’t talked to you or anyone from EcMon in over. a. decade.” Janna jabbed the table with each of those last words. “A _friend_ doesn’t do things like that to people. Especially when said “friend” was at the time your significant other.”

“Again, Janna, it’s not like I reached out to him in the first place! He popped out of nowhere and the fact that I hadn’t seen him in ten years made it all the more reason to try and catch up. Honestly I didn’t realize that it had been so long until we were catching up.”

“That’s a good thing Star—you moved on with your life. Everyone did. And you’re bringing back toxic people back into your life.”

“Toxic?!? Janna, Marco is one of my—one of _our_ —old friends.” Star emphasized. “Plus you’re acting like things that happened a decade ago is going to somehow affect the present?”

“First off, don’t you dare suggest that I am friends with him.” Janna tersely replied. “Secondly, the past does affect the present—you understand that almost better than anyone. And third, how can you even say that you’re friends anymore? After what he did to you?”

“Janna, both of us were hurt back then, and we were both at fault—"

“No, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about how when he left he straight up ghosted you and everyone here like we didn’t matter at all. Friends don’t do that to friends. _Decent human beings_ don’t even do that to each other.”

“Janna, Marco is a decent person. He just… hasn’t been the best at relationships. Neither of us were the best at that I guess…” Star softly muttered into her cup.

“Star, look.” Janna said placing her cup onto her saucer. “After what he did to you, to all of us, I don’t understand how you can pretend that nothing happened and not only talk with him, but invite him into your home.”

“Oh I wouldn’t say we pretended like nothing happened Janna.” Star nervously chuckled. “We talked about it quite a bit when we were catching up. That was… nice actually. A little bit of closure after so much silence.”

“But why then invite him into your home? Why not just take the closure and leave?”

“Well, I was just trying to be polite and, like you said, a ‘decent human being’, so I invited him to catch back up with Tom and reconnect with some more of the old gang.”

“You seriously want me to believe that you invited him over to your party so he could catch up with Tom and myself?” Janna asked skeptically. “Seriously Star, who do you take me for?”

“I’m serious Janna! That’s all I wanted!”

“So you had no personal reason or motive to see him again at your house?”

“No! He hadn’t seen people in a long time and was so happy to see me that I just wanted him to see some old friends and have a good Christumpmas! For Mewni’s sake Janna, you’re acting like I wanted him back into my life or something!” Star exclaimed, placing a hand over her chest. “I have a great life, a wonderful husband, I’m very happy with myself, I have nothing that needs to feel threatened by Marco showing up again into my life! I just wanted him to be happy and enjoy catching up with old friends that’s all!”

Janna pinched her temples with her hand and sighed exasperatedly. “Shit, this is worse than I thought…” she muttered.

“And how’s that Janna?” Star snapped. “Because other than you saying that I shouldn’t forgive someone for a bad breakup that happened over a decade ago, you haven’t given me any real reason why talking with Marco is a bad thing.”

“Ok then, Star.” Janna started, folding her hands on the table. “Let me lay this on you real thick because you’re not connecting the dots. You and Marco can never be just “friends”.

“What do you mean by that? Of course we can be friends! We’ve been friends for a good chunk of our lives.”

“No, I said, “just” friends. Star, any time Marco comes into your life, you two can’t help but get romantically involved with each other.”

“That’s… tha-that’s not necessarily true…” Star stammered.

“Oh no? How long after you first met did you start developing a crush on him? Hmm?” Star looked shocked at Janna as she continued. “From what I remember seeing and you telling me, it was within a few weeks tops. You barely could keep yourself together during the whole Toffee thing, and both of you were a mess when he came back from Mewni. And how about when you were dating Tom?” Star looked down at her hands holding her coffee cup. “You practically were dating Marco while you were “dating” Tom. I remember how you two were during our “break the curse” trip we did.”

“Janna I—”

“For crying out loud Star, we all knew you two were in love with each other from the second we saw you two together! We even had that stupid couple’s name for you two…Starco or something sappy like that.”

“Ooooh, I had nearly forgotten about Starco!” Star softly cooed.

“Focus Star—” Janna ordered. “My point is that you two can’t ever just be “friends”. You’re always more than friends. You always get romantic with each other. And whenever you do that, you cause so many problems for yourself and everyone around you.”

“Now hang on, that’s not fair Janna!” Star complained. “Relationships and emotions are messy complicated stuff, and it’s not our job to try and make everyone else’s life easier in the process.”

“True, but you two make it _soooo_ much more complicated because despite the fact you both love to talk and are often way too emotional, you never do a great job talking about your feelings with each other! Remember how long you two took to finally admit that you liked each other?”

“Hey now, that was more on Marco than on me!” Star started.

“The first time, yeah, but then when Marco came back after summer break you shoved him into a box for almost a whole year because you couldn’t deal with it, even though you wanted him by your side every single day. And you still didn’t even know if he felt the same way about you even though he was making it _sooooo_ obvious!”

“Janna—I ju—jus—wanna—” Star blushed and stammered.

“And the icing on the emotional communication breakdown cake is that you two had gotten so complacent and soooo bad at talking to each other despite everything you went through, that your final breakup was so damaging that neither of you talked to each other for a decade.” Janna concluded.

Star sat there in muted shocked silence for a moment, her face flush as her eyes darted, her hands clenching slightly. “Well, thanks for bringing my whole romantic life failures out into the open again. That was lovely to relive.” Star sarcastically retorted as Janna gave a slight chuckle. “But again, this isn’t the same Star or same Marco as back then. Why can’t we be “just friends” as you put it?”

“Because Star,” Janna gently emphasized. “You like him too much to ever be just friends. The more time you spend with him, the more you want to be with him. You’re like… like two magnets of opposite charge. The closer you two get together, the stronger the attraction and the faster the distance closes between you two. You can’t fight it on your own, you need external forces preventing you two from getting together, and that’s why I’m here today Star. To help prevent you from making another huge life mistake, which, once again, involves him.”

Star’s eyes widened and her mouth fell slightly open. “Wa—wait… wait just a goddamn second Janna…” Star haltingly spoke, pointing a finger at Janna. “Ar—are you saying, that—”

“The more time you spend with Marco Diaz, the more likely you are to relive the same relationship drama you went through as teenagers.” Janna coolly and simply put.

“N-n-nnnooo… your—you’re wrong!” Star stammered.

“It’s gonna be exactly like last time. You two are going to get hurt and confused all over again, make a bunch of stupid preventable mistakes, and Tom is going to be stuck in the middle of it all over again.”

“You’re—you’re just saying that because you’re still not over Tom either!” Star hurriedly exclaimed, pointing a finger at Janna. “You’re just upset that things didn’t work out for you two and now you’re making sure I’m miserable!”

“It’s because _you’ll_ be miserable that I’m here as your _friend_ to try and convince you to not make a huge mistake.” Janna calmly replied. “My personal feelings for the man aside, Tom doesn’t deserve to get hurt again like he did last time.”

“What makes you think something like this will happen again?!” Star quipped. “We’re both much more grown up and mature from the last time we saw each other—we can handle a complicated past and still be friends!”

“Because history keeps repeating itself Star, and people don’t fundamentally change that much either.” Janna calmly continued. “I know you. I know how deeply you feel things, even if I don’t understand it myself, and I’ve seen you do this exact same thing a few times now… Let me ask you this:” Janna paused, “when you and him “caught up” the other night, how long did you cry about him?”

“Uh, well, ga—we were both crying a lot, actually.” Star stammered through. “It was, uh, kinda emotional for both of us—lots of happy tears though!”

“Ok let me rephrase—after you said goodbye and were by yourself, how long did you “sad cry” about him?”

Star blushed strongly and opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. She lowered her head and brushed her hair behind her ear.

Janna sighed. “That’s what I thought, Star…” as she took a long sip from her tea. “You can’t even think about the guy without getting all flustered and emotional!”

“Its… more complicated than that Janna…” Star softly muttered. “There’s a lot of history and emotional baggage there too. You can’t just over simplify it…”

“And it’s for that exact reason you shouldn’t even mess with it.” Janna pressed. “You two have so much history together, so many connections, so much drama, so many intricate and conflicting feelings, that’s it’s better not to even mess with it and leave it be. Trust me Star, the reward isn’t worth the risk.”

“Maybe…” Star softly replied, her eyes still cast down at her hands. Both of them sat in silence as the din of the coffee shop filled their conversation with much needed white noise. Janna filled up her cup again with the hot tea as Star fidgeted with the ring on her hand. “I don’t think Marco’s a bad man…” she slowly and softly started, eyes still focused on her fidgeting hands, “but it was so good to be able to catch up with him and see him reconnect with old friends… I miss that Janna—I miss having the old gang back together, and it felt really good to see him back in our lives.”

Janna huffed as she took a small sip of her tea. Star ignored her and continued. “Why, it was really fun and amazing to hear about all of the things he had been doing with his life! The kids he was helping, that weird and amazingly sounding show he’s now working on, heck, even just how much he’s grown but how much he still looks the same! It was just really nice to see him again all normal and adulty, ya know?”

“Yeah, well, “amazing” isn’t exactly what I would call what he’s been doing…” Janna muttered into her cup.

“Wait, why?” Star hurriedly asked. “Do you think he’s been lying about what he’s been doing or why he’s here?”

Janna paused in between a sip, carefully reading Star’s expression and tone before deciding how to respond. She sighed as she gently put down her teacup on the saucer, “Well, I can tell you this much. This _amazing_ man has always been _amazingly_ bad at lying, so no. He’s not lying about his job or base reason for being here in EcMon.”

Star eyes quickly dashed up to stare at Janna, hovering between a mix of relief, doubt, and confusion. “How in the world do you know that?” she asked.

“I have my ways.” Janna softly smirked as she reached for her teacup.

“Janna—tell me.”

“Oh alright fine.” Janna huffed as she put the teacup back down and started to rummage through the inside pockets of her jacket. “Shouldn’t even be showing you this anyway.” she grumbled as she plopped two items onto the coffee table for both of them to look at.

“Hang on… Janna…” Star slowly started, her eyes growing wider as the recognition grew. “These are Marco’s phone and wallet!”

“Yep!” Janna smirked in the biggest smile she had had all day.

“JANNA!” Star cried, “You can’t just take people’s stuff! That’s stealing!”

“Heyheyhey, keep it down will ya?” Janna hissed as she looked around the café hoping no one over heard Star’s outburst. “It’s not very good optics if the Mayor is accused of stealing things! Besides, I didn’t steal them from Marco, and they’re technically not even his.” She said running a hand through her hair.

“Wha—whut?” Star looked at her confusingly. “How is that possible? I don’t understand.”

“These are _copies_ of Marco’s phone and wallet. I used a little black magic while we were… “catching up”, and when I got ahold of his phone and wallet, I was able to make exact replicas of them. Even the data saved on his phone is perfectly recreated.”

“Janna, if that wasn’t super creepy that would be really incredible.” Star sighed as she facepalmed herself and Janna beamed. “So how in the world did you even get access to his phone and wallet? Marco wouldn’t have just given you the passwords.”

“Well the wallet is easy—it’s his old QuestBuy wallet and I figured out how to hack those back in high school. His phone took, like, three tries to get? Honestly most people use the same passcodes, and a passcode of your birthday isn’t all that hard to figure out.” Janna shrugged as Star gawked on. “Anyway, looking through his wallet he does have a New York driver’s license and some ID cards that look like it’s from some studio or something. What’s more convincing is the pictures he’s taken. Not a lot, but based on the skyline and then the geotags on the pictures, it’s obvious that he’s in NYC and his story checks out” she sighed and folded her arms, leaning back into her chair as Star scrolled through his pictures. Everything Janna said seemed to check out, and Star was feeling an odd mixture of both relief and anger as she saw Marco apparently living a blissfully happy life in NYC.

“So he’s not lying about his past or his life…” Star softly muttered, a tight smile starting to draw across her face.

Janna scowled. “Hey hey now, don’t get any ideas or get yourself worked up Star. While he’s not lying about his past, he’s still a bad man to get involve with.”

“Janna, he’s not a _bad_ man!” Star exasperatedly sighed, placing the phone back down on the table. “I get where you’re coming from about all of this, I really do, but he’s never been a bad man and he’s not going to be a problem for me or for anyone else.”

“Star.” Janna carefully and methodically spoke, trying her best to keep her voice calm and rage in check. “Only bad things will come of this if you see him again. It’s not going to be good for you, Tom, your marriage, or even _him_.” letting slip the bit of vile she was unable to contain in her voice. “Please, please don’t see him or contact him again. As your friend, this is what I recommend.” she finished looking directly into Star’s eyes.

Star shifted uncomfortably in her seat and fidgeted with her hands. “I… uh… well—”

Janna reached across the table and grabbed her hands, tightly squeezing as she looked desperately into Star’s eyes. “Please Star.” she begged.

As Star looked at their clasped hands and back into Janna’s pleading eyes, her lips quivered. “I—I’ll definitely consider it.” she weakly muttered through with a weak smile, though Janna’s face remained unchanged.

“So you won’t listen to me?” Janna softly and sadly asked once more, tightening her grip on their hands.

“I—I said I’ll definitely consider it…” Star again weakly said as she pulled her hands away and placed them on her lap. “There’s a lot to think about and consider.” she weakly tried to give an encouraging smile as Janna slowly sat back in her chair and picked up her teacup.

“Excuse me, Ma’am?” Both of them looked over to see Aide standing at the edge of the table, another binder in hand. “You have about ten minutes before your next scheduled meeting with the City Aldermen.”

“Yes, thank you for reminding me Aide.” Janna effortlessly returning to her professional tone and pose. “We were just concluding our business here.”

“Aide! It’s so good to see you again! You’re looking well!” Star beamed at Aide, who turned and politely returned the smile back to Star.

“Indeed Mrs. Butterfly. It is always a pleasure to see you as well.”

“Oh please, Aide, I told you to call me Star! Mrs. Butterfly makes me feel like my mother.” Star shuddered at the thought as Aide stifled a silent chuckle. With a silent nod to both of them, Aide returned back to her corner booth and began reorganizing the spread-out papers and binders. Star sighed pleasantly as Janna took another sip from her teacup. “Well!” Star finally said standing up and starting to rewrap her scarf around her neck, “This was a good chat Janna. We need to hang out again as just ladies another time.”

“Agreed. I do enjoy these chats of ours.” Janna said remaining seated, a polite smile on her face.

“Welp!” Star said with a side slap to her legs. “Guess I’ll see ya around then! Good luck with the rest of work today Janna!” Star cheerfully concluded as she turned around and began walking towards the exit.

“Star,” Janna started, causing Star to turn her head back towards Janna. “remember you’re always welcomed to drop by my office for City consultations or if you just want to chat—”

“Aaawwwww!” Star cooed. “Than—”

“But I do not want to hear anything about Marco from you from now on. And if Marco heeded my advice as well, I doubt that will be an issue for either of us.” she firmly concluded. “Understood?”

Star’s face froze in her happy cooing pose, but with a layer of uneasiness evident as well. Star just slightly nodded as she turned and walked out of the café. Janna watched her briskly walk past the café parlor windows, the same mix of happy uneasiness etched on her face. Finishing her cup with a deep sip, she softly placed the now-empty cup back on the saucer.

“Those damn fools…” she muttered.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment (positive, negative, anonymous, etc.)! Your comments are my biggest motivators to continue to work and develop my skills as a writer! Thanks for reading!


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